July 26, 1964 - Willie Galimore and John Farrington, star offensive members of the world champion Chicago Bears, were killed tonight when Galimore’s car went out of control rounding a curve on a road west of Rensselaer, Ind., and crashed into a ditch.
Galimore, one of professional football’s great ball carriers, and Farrington, a pass-catching end, were returning to the Bears’ camp at St. Joseph’s college, where the team is preparing for the College All-Star game in Chicago on Aug. 7.
State police trooper Ivan Finch and Wayne Calloway, a sheriff’s deputy, who investigated the accident, said the rear of the car slipped off the blacktop, throwing the vehicle into a skid.
It turned over at least once, the officers said, and threw both players through the top. The bodies were found 60 feet apart.
There were no witnesses to the accident, but a farmer, Alan Flemming, who lives nearby, heard the crash, saw the wreckage from his window, and called the sheriff’s office.
Galimore, a graduate of Florida A&M, died of multiple skull fractures in the right temporal region, multiple internal injuries, and a crushed chest, according to Dr. E.R. Beaver, Jasper County coroner.
Farrington, a four-year veteran from Prairie View College in Texas, also suffered multiple skull fractures.
Both were pronounced dead on arrival at the Jasper County Hospital.
Galimore, who was 29 years old, was entering his seventh season as a Bear halfback. One of the NFL’s most dangerous breakaway runners, he had been handicapped the latter part of the 1962 season and the first half of last year by injuries which necessitated operation on both knees after the 1962 campaign.
He returned to form in the latter stages of last year’s championship drive and said as recently as yesterday that he now was fully recovered, with excellent prospects for a great 1964 season.
Galimore is survived by his widow, Audrey, and two sons and a daughter. Mrs. Galimore was notified of the accident by coach George Halas as her home in Tallahassee, Fla.
Farrington, 28, joined the Bears in 1961. He played in every league game through the 1962 and ’63 seasons, and in addition to his fleetness and pass catching, he was noted for his downfield blocking. He made his home in Houston, where his widow, Vivian, is expecting the couple’s first child in November.

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